riding and other stuff.

3 days at the guttenberghaus winter shelter room.

on tuesday, the 25th of february, we were already excited in the morning, because we were going to hike up to the guttenberghaus (at 2146 meters) and stay in the winter shelter room for 2 nights. we had planned our trip a few days earlier and with the good weather forecast, we knew it was time to realise our plan. we started packing on monday night, deciding how much food we should bring and what else could be crucial to have with us up on the mountain, besides our usual company, the avalanche beacon, shovel and probe. we made sure to take some sweets with us, to cheer us up and give us energy, our sleeping bags and something to read.

we picked up the key for the hut in ramsau, parked our car at the parking lot near the feistererhof and started our ascent. the sun was blazing down and as it was pretty windless, the easy hike up to the hut made us sweat. we were in a great mood and looked forward to our time at the hut. we walked at a slow pace to take in the beautiful scenery and arrived at the hut after about 3 hours.

yo-ho, up to the guttenberghaus we go!

roman navigating.

pointing out a fountain.

the skintrack upwards.

when we got there, we were curious to see the interior of the hut. we unlocked the door and were pleasantly surprised – we found a stove (that we already knew about), a comfortable bunk bed for 4 people, a table with a seating bench and even a ceiling light, powered by solar electricity. next to the hut was a small outhouse, so all basic needs were covered😉

roman starting the fire.

the guttenberghaus (only opened in summer).

our resort.

daw footprints.

letting my board thaw up in the sun.

the view from the shelter.

roman started to make fire, while i went outside again to collect snow to melt. we found a pan to cook in and made ourselves some soup. after dinner, we talked about our opportunities for the next day and went to bed very early.

hut life.

the night was a bit turbulent, i woke up often and later on the stove went out, so it was rather cold inside the hut. roman got up to start the fire up again and from then on, it was cozy and we managed to get in some more sleep before the alarm went off at 7am. we snoozed for a few more minutes and then left the bed. we had breakfast (bread with hazelnut spread & tea to refill our batteries ;)), gave ourselfs a quick catlick and then got ready for the tour of the day – a hike up to the summit of eselstein, at 2556 meters.

time for a delicious breakfast.

looking up to the eselstein.

on our way to the summit.

the view onto the dachstein plateau (am stein).

looking back to our skintrack.

the conditions were a slightly difficult, the snow had a firm crust on it and it was slippery to walk. we were glad that we had brought our crampons and used them to make the ascent a bit easier. our route went from the guttenberghaus to the feisterscharte and then up to the summit of the eselstein. from the feisterscharte on, we had a great view onto the enormous dachstein plateau (am stein), and a few chamois had an awesome view onto us. on top of the eselstein, we enjoyed a great panoramic view of the eastern alps.

the view from the eselstein.

the ride down went surprisingly well, as we had encountered lots of rocks on our hike up. unexpectedly, our boards didn’t get harmed.

we arrived at the hut at about 2pm and then had a relaxed afternoon, looking down on ramsau and schladming and watching daws cruising around up in the air.
in the evening, we once again checked out the possibilities for the upcoming day and decided to go up to the gruberscharte and maybe continue to the edelgrießhöhe and descent through the edelgrieß.

roman trying to chop wood – the axe was blunt.

after another bunk bed night, we got up at 7am. it was time for us to clean up the hut and leave it in a tidy condition. we extinguished the fire, made the beds, opened the windows to vent and swept the floor. at 9am, we put our backpacks on, stuck the skins onto our splitboard skis and had a last look at the small hut. we said goodbye to the birds and off we went. we were a bit exhausted, so we decided to just traverse a bit in direction of the gruberscharte and then ride down into the gruberkar directly.

the ascent was a tad straining, since the snow crust had not yet melted and there was a lot of old avalanche debris lying around. it was challenging to navigate through all the rocks and a stream creek, but we made it down safely, without harming ourselves or our boards.

after returning the key, it was time for a nice pizza down in schladming. mission completed!